It a travesty that guys like CM Punk are being held back with the creatives and WWE's policies. If this was the attitude era, CM Punk could have been one of the greatest heels of all time. Sadly CM Punks prime could be wasted.

There's still his feud with the Rock, if it's anything like I expect, it could be legendary.

It a travesty that guys like CM Punk are being held back with the creatives and WWE's policies. If this was the attitude era, CM Punk could have been one of the greatest heels of all time. Sadly CM Punks prime could be wasted.

There's still his feud with the Rock, if it's anything like I expect, it could be legendary.

The problem with WWE is that they can't take a step forward without taking 2 steps back. They hold onto people for way too long and are a slave to their own past.

- Why is Lawler still on the show?- Why are they trying to bring back Rick Flair? What can he possibly offer the WWE at this point? - It's fine that Rock is still making appearances, but do they really have to plan the entire title around him for over a year when he is on the show very infrequently?- Do they even know what they are doing with Lesnar? Why is he still lurking in the background. - The Undertaker is really going to wrestle again at WrestleMania? How many stab wounds to the neck will he kick out of this time?

If they aren't careful they are going to end up with the same situation they had in the early 90's when they held onto Hogan/Savage/Warrior for too long and got caught with no one to replace them in the mid-90's and saw their product nearly collapse. The key isn't bringing in some zero-dimensional neanderthal like Ryback and pushing him to the top in less than 6 months. They keep trying to force feed the "next big thing" on the fans and all it does is flame that wrestlers career out way too quickly.

nocera wrote:CM Punk, the guy who's been champion for over 400 days is being held back?

I'm not referring to his title reign. I'm referring to how it's being treated. When Punk became a face, it was great at first, but then he was toned down to the point where they made him a heel. Nothing wrong with that, except he hasn't won a clean match since, and he doesn't really need Paul Heyman either.

I guess I'm trying to say is the WWE's PG era is hindering his full potential.

If this were the Attitude era the title would have been hot shotted 10 times during this reign. The PG era doesn't really handicap much. The only thing I don't like is you can't have blood when you need it to blow off a feud. It's not needed every match, but if you are having a blow off to a feud in a HITC or the like.... then it's necessary. For as many awesome things that were during the attitude era, there was a lot of crap too.

I think WWE's main issue is that they don't give you a reason to invest in someone outside of the top 1 or 2 guys. You have to make people care, and they are pretty bad at doing that for quite a while now.

Oh yeah. Punk was hobbling around on cruches, gave pretty much the same promo twice for SmackDown and RAW last Tuesday, and it was the highlight of the night. I've been beating this drum in this thread for a while, I understand heels arent going to win clean most of the time, but if youre going to give Punk a 400+ day reign, quit making him look like a coward just because he's a heel again. Jesus. It wouldnt hurt to have a bit of believablity once in a while

DudeMan2766 wrote:Oh yeah. Punk was hobbling around on cruches, gave pretty much the same promo twice for SmackDown and RAW last Tuesday, and it was the highlight of the night. I've been beating this drum in this thread for a while, I understand heels arent going to win clean most of the time, but if youre going to give Punk a 400+ day reign, quit making him look like a coward just because he's a heel again. Jesus. It wouldnt hurt to have a bit of believablity once in a while

I feel like he has looked strong during most of the title run and it is only recently that they had to adopt the coward angle. And that was only done because of Cena's injury and them deciding to push Ryback straight from wrestling literal jobbers to the main event. The problem is that Ryback can't really wrestle well at all and the only way they can display him is through dominance. He almost looks like the Ultimate Warrior in the ring as you can tell he has little awareness of his opponents health/safety. He can't sell very well either so CM Punk has very little to work with.

DudeMan2766 wrote:Oh yeah. Punk was hobbling around on cruches, gave pretty much the same promo twice for SmackDown and RAW last Tuesday, and it was the highlight of the night. I've been beating this drum in this thread for a while, I understand heels arent going to win clean most of the time, but if youre going to give Punk a 400+ day reign, quit making him look like a coward just because he's a heel again. Jesus. It wouldnt hurt to have a bit of believablity once in a while

I feel like he has looked strong during most of the title run and it is only recently that they had to adopt the coward angle. And that was only done because of Cena's injury and them deciding to push Ryback straight from wrestling literal jobbers to the main event. The problem is that Ryback can't really wrestle well at all and the only way they can display him is through dominance. He almost looks like the Ultimate Warrior in the ring as you can tell he has little awareness of his opponents health/safety. He can't sell very well either so CM Punk has very little to work with.

I agree with that. It just bothers me how this guy beat jericho left and right for months, kicked Del Rio's ass, ziggler, etc. then just because he closelined the rock at RAW1000 he all of the sudden can't win with out cheating. You think enough of the guy to give him this long of a run, at least let him show what he can do and win some matches other than just cuz he's a face

skullman80 wrote:I think WWE's main issue is that they don't give you a reason to invest in someone outside of the top 1 or 2 guys. You have to make people care, and they are pretty bad at doing that for quite a while now.

That's the thing. They don't have to.

TNA, ROH, Chikara... none of those pose any sort of threat to the WWE. It doesn't seem like there will ever be a WCW or ECW to make waves and push the business again. Because of that the product will stay as is because they have no reason to change it... that kind of leads me to Punk himself. I like him but a year and a half ago he was up in arms about the state of the product. Worked up enough to go off-script on a worked shoot and catapult himself into pro-wrestling history. Then he got a nice new contract, his own music, and dropped any and all of the indignation to follow whatever was put out there.

DudeMan2766 wrote:Oh yeah. Punk was hobbling around on cruches, gave pretty much the same promo twice for SmackDown and RAW last Tuesday, and it was the highlight of the night. I've been beating this drum in this thread for a while, I understand heels arent going to win clean most of the time, but if youre going to give Punk a 400+ day reign, quit making him look like a coward just because he's a heel again. Jesus. It wouldnt hurt to have a bit of believablity once in a while

I feel like he has looked strong during most of the title run and it is only recently that they had to adopt the coward angle. And that was only done because of Cena's injury and them deciding to push Ryback straight from wrestling literal jobbers to the main event. The problem is that Ryback can't really wrestle well at all and the only way they can display him is through dominance. He almost looks like the Ultimate Warrior in the ring as you can tell he has little awareness of his opponents health/safety. He can't sell very well either so CM Punk has very little to work with.

I agree with that. It just bothers me how this guy beat jericho left and right for months, kicked Del Rio's ass, ziggler, etc. then just because he closelined the rock at RAW1000 he all of the sudden can't win with out cheating. You think enough of the guy to give him this long of a run, at least let him show what he can do and win some matches other than just cuz he's a face

I can agree with this for sure. I would even take a 30 min time limit where Punk is down for the 2-3 count at the 30th minute at this point ala Flair.Speaking of which I just bought a kneestofaces shirt as an xmas present. Love that shirt!

skullman80 wrote:I think WWE's main issue is that they don't give you a reason to invest in someone outside of the top 1 or 2 guys. You have to make people care, and they are pretty bad at doing that for quite a while now.

That's the thing. They don't have to.

TNA, ROH, Chikara... none of those pose any sort of threat to the WWE. It doesn't seem like there will ever be a WCW or ECW to make waves and push the business again. Because of that the product will stay as is because they have no reason to change it... that kind of leads me to Punk himself. I like him but a year and a half ago he was up in arms about the state of the product. Worked up enough to go off-script on a worked shoot and catapult himself into pro-wrestling history. Then he got a nice new contract, his own music, and dropped any and all of the indignation to follow whatever was put out there.

skullman80 wrote:I think WWE's main issue is that they don't give you a reason to invest in someone outside of the top 1 or 2 guys. You have to make people care, and they are pretty bad at doing that for quite a while now.

That's the thing. They don't have to.

TNA, ROH, Chikara... none of those pose any sort of threat to the WWE. It doesn't seem like there will ever be a WCW or ECW to make waves and push the business again. Because of that the product will stay as is because they have no reason to change it... that kind of leads me to Punk himself. I like him but a year and a half ago he was up in arms about the state of the product. Worked up enough to go off-script on a worked shoot and catapult himself into pro-wrestling history. Then he got a nice new contract, his own music, and dropped any and all of the indignation to follow whatever was put out there.

For anyone not watching RAW, their coverage of Santa getting mowed down by Del Rio's car has been incredible. So bad its awesome. All the wrestlers were in the hall way crying and screaming at Del Rio, then Booker T says "Right before Santa went unconscious his last words were, "Del Rio is going to be in a match. A Miracle on 34th Street Fight!" And all the other superstars are like "yeaahhhh"

DudeMan2766 wrote:For anyone not watching RAW, their coverage of Santa getting mowed down by Del Rio's car has been incredible. So bad its awesome. All the wrestlers were in the hall way crying and screaming at Del Rio, then Booker T says "Right before Santa went unconscious his last words were, "Del Rio is going to be in a match. A Miracle on 34th Street Fight!" And all the other superstars are like "yeaahhhh"

It's worth watching. Great light hearted way to end the year. Did they leave in the "you killed Santa" chants?